Quitting Social Media as a Parent

Quitting social media as a parent can be hard. And it can make parenting even harder. Here are experts’ advise why it’s nice to take a break.

Once upon a time, social media was a source of amusement for me, but as time passed, it began to undermine my sense of worth. It has been nothing short of life-changing for me to follow Marie Kondo’s advice and rid my life of all the toxicity.

When I was going through my social media account one day, I found myself suddenly feeling sour. For me, it was an image of someone’s “Pinterest perfect” life that sparked the change in my disposition. There is only one. Because she’s a fun mom, she posts pictures of herself dressed to the hilt with her lovely children doing daring activities. She writes heartfelt letters to her adoring husband. Your inadequacy is exacerbated by the fact that she appears to have it all together.

Because of this constant negativity, and because I was allowing social media to ruin my life, I took the decision to deactivate my accounts and felt an immediate feeling of relief. Everything about my current state of happiness is a confirmation that I made the proper decision for myself. So, here’s why:

A Fresh Look

It wasn’t until I stopped using social media that I noticed how prevalent it had become in my daily routines. After a while, I began to perceive it as an environment where many people sought praise and validation by oversharing, one-upping, and meek bragging.

Social media is full of art-directed, glossy, and joyful photographs, but behind closed doors, we break down in a heap of tears.. Truth and pain are suppressed in favor of a facade of superiority and perfection. The fact that I did so voluntarily was exhausting and harmful. Taking all of this out of my life was liberating and beneficial in many other ways.

Productivity Enhancement

What was most troubling was how much time was being wasted on social media. When I was browsing through my news feed, I would often find myself in a zombie-like lethargy, sucked down the rabbit hole of meaningless garbage. My former college roommate’s brother’s girlfriend’s best friend’s dog would end up on my Facebook profile for some reason. I would be utterly ignorant to the fact that dinner was on the stove and the kids were fighting.

My output has skyrocketed as a result of the additional time I now have at my disposal. As a result of watching one episode of Chopped, I’m now convinced that I have what it takes to cook. I’ve been preparing opulent meals and assembling beautiful bento boxes for my son’s school lunches. Despite the fact that my culinary efforts go largely unnoticed by my children (unthinkable! ), I remain unfazed.

All the baby stuff and outgrown toys and clothes were donated as a result of this inspiration. Until recently, I was enamored with the idea of living a minimalist lifestyle, but now that I have children, I’m forced to look for a new one.

Improved mental well-being

Keep-up-with-the-Joneses mentality started to damage my self-esteem and the way I viewed myself and my children through social media. Photos of exotic locations made me feel drab and uninteresting. Was it just me, or did she seem to be able to get rid of her pregnancy weight so quickly?

Comparing my kids to the well-behaved ones I observed, their behavior seemed downright savage. I was envious of working mothers’ careers. After returning to work, I’d feel guilty seeing stay-at-home moms at school events during the day. Somehow, despite the fact that I lead an incredible life, nearly every photo I saw made me feel inferior in some manner.

Cathartic: Taking myself out of the “competition” has been a good thing. As a result, I don’t worry about whether or not my family is doing things at the same pace as everyone else since I don’t have a measure to compare them to. Because I’m no longer comparing myself and my family to everyone else on the internet, I’m considerably happier and less stressed.

Focusing on the Here and Now

Similarly, inattentive parenting is risky, something I was guilty of. Rather than being distracted by my phone while spending time with my children, I strive to be more present and focused on them while we are together.

We all have a limited number of hours in the day, and the time I wasted on my phone, scrolling through mindless content, was time I might have been spending with my children and others around me. Because they deserve my undivided attention, being offline has allowed me to be fully present with my family and friends.

I’m able to converse with individuals face-to-face instead of relying just on social media. I look forward to playdates so that my kids may play with their friends, but also so that I can catch up with their mothers! In addition, not having a digital trace means that my kids won’t be able to use bathtime images as an excuse to be unhappy with me later.

Positive aspects of social media are undeniable, but the downsides significantly outnumbered the benefits for me, and it was becoming detrimental and toxic. Going cold turkey isn’t for everyone, but for me, it was the best decision.

There is a surprising amount of satisfaction and extra time this brings to do more productive things like over-analyze that absolutely normal interaction I had with that mom at the park, learn new lingo to humiliate my kids, or cleaning the kitchen only to have it demolished two minutes later. I’ve been surprised and delighted by this.

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